


Art of War

by orphan_account



Series: Art of War [1]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Study, Gen, One Shot Collection, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:48:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23474215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: One shots about my male Sith Warrior, Kaizen Hashibira, and tales of his intergalactic exploits as he rises to the top of the pecking order.
Series: Art of War [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1688740
Kudos: 3





	Art of War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dream of world domination starts here.

**CHAPTER 1 – ATTACK BY STRATAGEM**

* * *

_I_ _n the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them._

_Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting._

~ Sun Tzu, "Art of War"

* * *

Kaizen Hashibira was not a fool.

In fact, it was more accurate to say that he credited his survival to the simple matter that Sith, as a whole, could be quite predictable and easy to manipulate if one studied their quarry closely. From the moment Darth Baras took him in as his own apprentice, he was not surprised. It didn’t take long for him to dissect Darth Baras and the way he thinks either. Suffice to say, he was honestly a bit disappointed at how predictable and shallow this man was. And his intuition was never wrong. If he didn’t play out his strategy wisely, he might find himself with a lightsaber in the back, betrayed just like the other contacts and spies he took down in the name of his new mentor.

Kaizen was not a fool. Darth Baras only viewed him as a strong tool, to be used for a little while to eliminate any loose ends. After that, the Sith Lord clearly expects him to outlive his usefulness. There was one exception, however. Kaizen had every intention to survive and leave Dromund Kaas.

Darth Baras was not hard to read and predict.

Darth Baras invested his pride on being one step ahead of his enemy. The Sith Lord truly believed that his experience in underworld dealings protects him from being outmaneuvered and disarmed by his enemies. In the world of Darth Baras, the end justified the means and the concept of loyalty held no importance to him. It was how he kept his minions and spies in line, with either fear or the wary respect that came from acknowledging a threat.

Darth Baras views his network of spies and contacts as nothing more than an elaborate and elegant machine whose cogs and gears must always be well oiled and work to peak efficiency. To an extent, Kaizen was convinced that the state of the Sith Lord’s intergalactic network of spies was a reflection of his ego. Typical egomaniacal bastard, where even the smallest fleck of dirt cannot be tolerated for fear of how it would taint his image.

Within hours of becoming acquainted with his purported mentor, Kaizen found it more challenging to conceal his boredom. It was a tragic thing, really. In that moment, he just knew how to discreetly silence Darth Baras in the most permanent sense.

Kaizen would only survive if he either continued proving his usefulness to this Sith Lord, or if he was deceptive enough to mislead Darth Baras on his potential. Assuming he has to stay within these options, the first route would give him a longer time to survive underneath the shadow of the Sith Lord, while the second route would give him the shortest time to survive.

The first path is more discreet and slower, and the second one was more precarious and violent. If he was forced to choose between the two, he would choose the former. By choosing the second route, he would be playing effectively into the hands of Darth Baras. If Baras prided himself on being a ruthless tactician and an expert in matters of deception, this would be the fastest way to get discovered. But the first route will give him the best chance to survive, if and only if he played directly into Baras’ blind spot.

Darth Baras has an unsightly blind spot. It was his strong belief that he would never be outmaneuvered by someone smarter than him. The Sith Lord’s weak point was the belief that his experience in underhanded dealings and backstabbing would give him the intuition needed to sniff out potential threats before they manifested.

Kaizen sighed and muttered under his breath. So, it seems, as long as he stayed within that psychological blind spot, Darth Baras would never suspect him. Baras might be the type to admire competence when he saw it, but as soon as he caught a whiff of that potential threatening to usurp his position as the apex predator, he rushes in and cuts it off at the head.

And now, he was grateful that he listened to his gut instincts, never playing fully by Baras’ book. By sparing Darth Rathari and Overseer Tremel and a few other key contacts he has been tasked to eliminate, he had a few dirty cards hidden in his hand and walked away with potentially more allies. Allies and friends were far more powerful in some key ways, than having a network of spies whose only leash is fear and forced respect. And if he found ways to open up new connections as a result of his decisions, it was a better deal.

He instantly recalled an ancient war text that he found in the bowels of the Sith libraries in Korriban. The first thing that struck him was the fact that the material was not stored in a holocron or a tablet shard. Rather, it was an ancient tome whose pages were surprisingly well-preserved. The ancient tome was in excellent condition, bearing no signs of the wear and tear that came with long passages of time. He assumed that some form of ancient modification was used to keep it preserved. Whoever wrote it clearly expected it to be of relevance in the far future.

 _The Art of War_ , written under an obvious pen name. It could have been written by one of the Dark Jedi Exiles that predated the formation of the Empire. One thing was certain, the Sith Lord that wrote it must have been quite the interesting character in their time.

He fought down the prick of disappointment that welled up in his gut. For a time, he was eager to see what he else he could have learned from Darth Baras. His time as an acolyte in the Sith Academy on Korriban, however brief it was, was barely productive. Not even the library and the trainers were enough. They lacked the knowledge and secrets of the Force that he craved. The only way to make his stay bearable was passing the time secluded away in the depths of the library, devouring the knowledge of ancient texts and holocrons. And even then, the knowledge was heavily censored and handpicked.

The sound of gentle knocking echoed around his private quarters. He opened his eyes and withdrew from his meditation, blinking slowly at the dim light emanated by the holo-computer to his side.

The muffled sound of the Captain voice carried through the durasteel doors. “My lord, we have arrived on Dromund Kaas.”

* * *

Malavai stood in silence to the right of Darth Baras’ latest apprentice, taking this opportune time to observe the man as they both walked to the holoterminal. He reminisced on their first meeting on Balmorra, in his private barracks near the Sobrik spaceport. When Darth Baras requested a personal audience with him through his holoterminal, notifying him ahead of time to anticipate the arrival of his new apprentice, Malavai’s interest was already piqued. In all the years of being stationed in Balmorra, the Captain knew that Darth Baras was a challenging superior to impress.

It also did not help at all that for the first time in many years, his instincts and analyses of a person could not have been more inaccurate. It also did not help that Malavai shuddered at the faint, predatory edge that this Sith exuded with his aura whenever they came across their enemies.

This Sith apprentice was a delightful surprise.

He was not ashamed to admit that the Sith took him off guard by exceeding his expectations on the man’s performance on Balmorra. Malavai prided himself on analysing and predicting the behavior of his enemies, and this habit extends to his allies as well. To have his own calculations broken was not something that occurred everyday. With that realization, he knew that expecting more unpredictable behavior would be a wise course of action in the future when it came to matters with Darth Baras’ new apprentice.

In combat, Malavai played his part as the medical support to the Sith apprentice while he was also responsible for taking out any attack that may blindside the warrior. As he continued his observations, Malavai was often struck in awe at the level of skill by which the Darth’s apprentice eliminated their military threats. The Sith warrior often leaped into the fray as a whirlwind of crimson, the epitome of aggression and ruthless determination. But underneath it all, Malavai sensed the frigidity of his morals and the reptilian level-headedness that was uncharacteristic of Sith.

If analogies were to be drawn, he would compare this Sith apprentice to the basilisk, a serpentine creature of legend known to paralyze prey with a glance of its eyes. He was a flurry of violence and determination on the surface, but underneath, Malavai could sense the harsh cold of Hoth emanating from him. It was fascinating to observe.

The level of competence displayed by this Sith was leagues away from what he observed in his long life in the Imperial military. He has seen and worked with Sith, and he was often left with a bitter taste. The Captain respected competence in whatever form it took, because it was often the case that competence in one’s discipline was an exotic bird rarely seen in this part of the wilderness. He admired his superiors, but all the same, he would never suffer fools.

From the moment they met, his intuition told him that something about this man would be different from all the other apprentices that Darth Baras took under his tutelage.

Very different, indeed.

For instance, it was hard to ignore the general air of subtlety that hovered around the Sith apprentice. It followed him wherever he went, shadowing him like a reaper of death. Whether or not it was intentional, Malavai got the feeling that the Sith was a difficult man to pin down, even by his allies. There would always be that degree of unpredictability that even Force-users would not expect.

As if the man himself was aware of this perception, Malavai could see points in their interactions with other people where the Sith subtly wielded it to great effect, often to persuade or scale down a threat. As his observations continued on their missions, Malavai could certainly describe the man as a dangerous enigma. But it was also fascinating to see how a Sith like him could effortlessly walk away with minimal bloodshed.

This man was a conundrum.

The Sith had a sharp and lethal intellect that lurked in the depths of his aura, swimming right below the murky surface. Not that he would ever divulge it, but Malavai had observed that the Sith warrior seemed to almost make it a habit to deliberately downplay his own competence. Whether it was by innate nature or a deliberate stratagem, on the times it did surface, the Captain couldn’t help the shiver that ran down his spine.

Sometimes, it felt like Malavai was a mere firaxan shark swimming right alongside a leviathan, a weight class leagues beyond his own. A firaxan shark, swimming in the safety of the shadows cast by a legendary creature.

It was an interesting contrast to the aura that Darth Baras exuded. He respected the Sith Lord with a fear that was healthy and moderate. However, what he found bemusing was the fact that this Sith warrior was the first one of his kind that managed to unsettle him, however slight it was.

Whenever he would muster the courage to draw the Sith’s attention for a brief conversation, the man was soft-spoken and polite. The harsh glare in his crimson eyes would almost always be somewhat softened whenever Malavai would make eye contact. The Captain was treated better in this Sith’s company than he was by others in the Imperial military for years. And yet, Malavai still felt like he was always walking on eggshells whenever they talked.

He never felt severely overshadowed by Darth Baras, interestingly enough.

Somehow, a part of him stiffened up in apprehension as he realized this. If someone like him could already sense the subtle danger and potential that this Sith apprentice represented, Malavai wondered if Darth Baras came to a similar conclusion as him. And suppose that is the case, then Malavai predicts that a devastating fallout could occur in the near future. Masters and apprentices never mixed well, not when their ambitions and ego are involved.

If the worse came to be, whose side would he choose?

But for some reason, Malavai got the impression that this Sith warrior could care less about such matters. It seemed that Darth Baras’ apprentice had his eyes set on a goal beyond what most Sith had. Power, glory, fame, hatred, and passion – these were words that never struck a cord with the man.

If anything, the Sith apprentice would always have a specific look in his eyes, the kind of gaze that only surfaces in the eyes of someone gazing at something light years away from where he was. Malavai wondered what the man envisioned for his future.

When they reached the helm, a strange impulse overtook him. He was just as surprised with himself when he obeyed this urge and suddenly spoke out of turn.

“Permission to speak freely, my lord?” the Captain spoke softly.

The Sith apprentice halted in his tracks and slowly craned his neck, moving with reptilian speed. “Speak your mind, Quinn,” the man said softly, crimson eyes losing their initial hardness. “You never need ask for it.”

There it was again. The subtle glimpses of a gentle nature underneath that mask of a Sith.

Malavai swallowed thickly as he felt the weight of that reptilian gaze sweeping over his figure. Somehow, he could feel the tension in his shoulders dissipating, and this reaction confused him. “You. . . you saved my life in the ambush created by the Resistance forces in Balmorra. I just wanted to express my sincerest gratitude, my lord.”

Malavai broke his gaze and looked down, head bowed in fear of being overwhelmed. After a few seconds, he gazed up again.

The Sith apprentice tilted his head, crimson eyes unblinking in a manner reminiscent of reptiles. The lines in the corner of the man’s eyes deepened, eyes glinting with some kind of emotion. Even with the rebreather mask on the man’s face, Malavai could not mistake hearing the fond tone in the Sith’s voice.

“You would be sorely missed if you died ahead of your time, Captain,” the man replied, voice deepening in amusement. Malavai stiffened as he heard the man speak again, voice bordering dangerously on purring. “I would be very sad if that came to be. You have been an excellent companion and I value your contributions aboard this ship.”

Malavai nodded curtly and bowed his head. “Thank you, my lord.”

The Sith apprentice smiled. “Captain, you should be aware by now that I am not like most Sith.”

Malavai already realized that. Still, would only make it harder for him to get an accurate read on the other man in the future. The Sith was unpredictable, and it was of the dangerous kind. He shivered at that thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically, I headcanoned my Sith Warrior as being a mini Darth Jadus in training.
> 
> Couple of points to start with:  
> 1\. My Sith Warrior leans more to the light side, but he's not a Jedi. He has a utilitarian and pragmatic view of the world. If he sees a strategic advantage in doing an action, he'll commit to that. If not, he won't. And sometimes, choosing the strategic choice does not always line up with the light side. One thing to keep in mind about Kaizen is that he absolutely hates inefficiency. And the more dead bodies there are, the greater the inefficiency. He prefers to walk away with minimal bloodshed because unnecessary killing only affects his ability to gain allies for tactical advantages. It doesn't do to stir the hornet's nest just because you felt like it.
> 
> 2\. The "Art of War" is a real book. It's written by an ancient Chinese general called Sun Tzu. The book is an excellent treatise on military strategy, but the teachings in the book also apply to everyday life. The wording in the book is highly symbolic so if you're interested in reading it, I recommend getting a copy of the text where there are interpretations and translations included with it. The book was translated from Mandarin (hopefully I'm not wrong in this) so there is a strong possibility that nuances might be lost.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been meaning to post these one shots for a while now. I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to updating the relationship tags but I'll think about it as this project goes on. At this point, I just want a place where I can collect all of my short stories about the Sith Warrior's characterization. There were points in the game where I became frustrated with the dialogue options because I felt that some of them were not in line with how I envisioned my Sith Warrior. To fix that, and hopefully fix the icky points in the main plotline beyond the class story, I posted this. At some point I'm open to the possibility of putting out an actual story based on the one shots in this collection once the world building is finished.


End file.
